City Baby Names: Alabama

Inspired by the YouTube baby name guru krisscouture, I decided to start a baby names series where I consult City-Data.com, view all the cities in a particular state, and list names I find interesting. If they’re not names I’d use, there is something about them that catches my positive attention, and their style might inspire other names I’d like.

Anyway, going in alphabetical order, I’m starting with Alabama:

Eva

Helena

Jasper

Madison

Samson

Theodore

Victoria

Baby names! An update / re-do

This post was originally published in June, but I realized I misrepresented the names’ popularity rank. I’ve amended it to reflect their popularity within each gender. So, for example, Helena is the 588th most popular girls name, not the 588th most popular name overall.

No, I’m not expecting. However, as a young reader and a linguaphile, I always had a small thing for baby names. Also, about a year ago, I started following beauty channels on YouTube. I don’t keep up with them as much anymore, but one thing I especially enjoyed was the feeling of engaging in girl talk. It may not be so, but it seemed to me that women were using beauty products as a reason to just talk and bond with other women. And in that realm of internet “girl talk”, I ran into a few mommy blogs and vlogs, one of my favorites being the YouTuber AnastasiaRuby. And I still feel like the world of mommy blogs is primarily about bonding with other women, and only secondarily about the actual content of the blog or vlog.

So, given all the above, I’ve decided to pay more attention to the baby name and mommy blog community. Here are my top 5 girls and boys names:

Top 5 Girls Names

1. Helena (#588 in the US)
   • Pronounced “Helen-a”. One night about a year ago though, I had a beautiful dream that was fully of heavenly music, and the composition was apparently called Helena. According to the Baby Name Wizard, Helena is derived from a word that means “light, torch, bright”. I have an image of Prometheus in my head – someone who shares knowledge and “lights the way”, so to speak. It’s a fairly strong meaning for a girl’s name, which is what I’m sort of aiming for.
2. Violet (#101 in the US)
   • I like Violet because… well, I don’t actually know why, other than I think it’s a pretty name. I have a thing for flower names for girls, although I’m not especially fond of violets. Maybe because my favorite color is plum? I don’t know.
3. Scarlett (#80 in the US)
   • I’m thinking that maybe my choosing of girls names is really all about stimulating the senses. Helena for glorious music; Violet for a beautiful color, scent, and sight of flowers; and now Scarlett, which is quite a stimulating color. I think I like it because it’d be an interesting take on the concept of namesakes. My name’s Charlotte, and maybe it’d be cool (but confusing I guess) for my daughter’s name to rhyme with mine?
4. Elise (#162 in the US)
   • Strangely, Elise used to be my #1 girls name. I liked it because of Beethovens’ Für Elise. Again, my thing for beautiful music. I think it’s fascinating that the identity of Elise was never certainly determined, and I had always thought that naming my daughter Elise would be an interesting ode to that mystery, or some playful way to claim that the composition was written for my daughter.
5. Ruby (#109 in the US, and #1 in Wales – wow!)
   • I think this name is adorable, and I think it ages well. Again, I’m not particularly fond of rubies, but I do like the color red as a stimulating color, it’s a color of strength, and it also conjures beautiful imagery.

Top 5 Boys Names

1. Felix (#311 in the US)
   • Means “happy, lucky” in Latin. I like that the name doesn’t have a hyper-masculine meaning, I like the meaning itself, it follows the pattern of old-fashioned name, yet it contains that fashionable ‘X’ at the end, it’s not too popular…. It’s a great name :)
2. Phineas with the nickname Finn (not ranked – never within the top 1,000 in the US)
   • This was a character in the book A Separate Peace. Although I wasn’t especially fond of the character, I do like the name. It’s a very unique name. I just hope that the show Phineas and Ferb loses popularity before I have children, because Phineas is a great boys name candidate for me.
3. August (#398 in the US)
   • I first became aware of this name when I was assembling my family tree. It was the name of my great-great- and great-great-great-grandfather. Also, my great-great-grandmother was named a feminine variant, either Auguste or Augusta. I think the name August is a very masculine and distinguished name, but it’s also somewhat of a nature name (I consider units of time such as months and days to be nature names because those units are historically associated with natural occurrences, like the harvest, monthly phases, etc.)
4. Solomon (#449 in the US)
   • The name of the great and wise biblical king.
5. Jasper (#282 in the US)
   • I have no idea why I like this name. I also used to like Casper more than I do now, so maybe this is some type of more usable variant? It reminds me of clay, because it’s a county in Georgia, and I imagine dusty red clay when I think of Georgia. Strange, huh?

• “Easy Homemade Granola”
• Greek yogurt instead of sour cream
• Sautee chopped garlic. Mix it with pasta, red pepper flakes, and parmesan cheese.
• Peanut Sauce

Britta Riley: A garden in my apartment

 

Sorry to be neglecting this blog, but…

I discovered Pinterest :x Many of the purposes for which I use this blog can be fulfilled at Pinterest (i.e. posting pictures, posting ideas, etc.) However, I’d like to find a way to connect this blog with some of my Pinterest boards. And of course, when I have long-winded things to say, I’ll come here :)

• 10 Dishwasher Dos and Don’ts
• Wet hair in a utility sink and then lather with shampoo before getting into the shower. This should save quite a bit of water.
• Use utility sink in laundry room? Or get a large sink for the bathroom, such as this one below?

I want to have an architecture company

Okay, so I guess I’ll share a dream I have: I want to one day own my own residential architecture company.

I initially didn’t want to share any of this, because I was afraid people would steal my idea :P However, I read in a magazine that you should talk about your business ideas – it allows you to get feedback, make connections, etc.

Tenets of the company

• Focus on period architecture. When I was younger, I always loved looking at housing plans books. The problem is that, out in the world, I was drawn to older homes. I didn’t see many newer plan books that incorporated period architecture.
• Energy efficiency. Older homes might be charming, but they aren’t always as energy efficient as modern homes.
• Quality, not quantity. This is inspired by the architect and pioneer of the small house movement, Sarah Susanka.
  
• Amended floor plans to reflect modern living. This means downsizing the homes, incorporating closets where old houses might lack, creating bigger but fewer bedrooms, etc. Even in modern floor plans, there are some cultural remnants of rooms that we once used, but no longer are. They simply stay incorporated out of habit. Unless the client specifically wants these features, I think they should be taken out. People often would love to live in an old house, but they also run into problems of floor plans being incompatible with their lifestyle. It is for this reason that I think people don’t really want five different kinds of tiny parlors – they simply want to feel like they live in an old home. Knowing this, I think an amended floor plan would be appreciated :)

My role

• Historian and researcher. I will research different architectural styles, and also stay current on anthropological writings pertaining to how we live. I also will help the clients decide on a floor plan.

Who I would need to hire

• An architect
• A contractor

There are some things to consider, though.

• I’ll likely never be an architect. However, I don’t think that’s completely necessary. As a company, we’d be designing (and maybe building?) houses. I can leave it to the architects do to the rendering, while I lead the “design”.
• I don’t know anything about starting a company, much less one that requires significant start-up capital.
• How much start-up capital would I need, anyway? -.-
• How do I go about doing market research?

• Work for the Southern Poverty Law Center
• What’s Really Pornographic? The Point of Documenting Detroit
• Use as little plastic as possible. Stick with stainless steel and glass.
  • I’ve got a BPA-free (what does that even mean?) plastic water bottle. However, research increasingly shows that plastic is not good for you, especially in the kitchen. So, I’d like to replace my plastic water bottle with a stainless steel one.
  • When my children are too young to drink from glass, they can drink from stainless steel cups.
  • I’d also like to replace my plastic tupperware with glass Pyrex.

• The Vegetarian Food Pyramid
• Healthy cooking tips (from the Better Health Channel)
• I want serving utensils that correspond to the proper serving size
• 1/4 cup, 1/2 cup, 1 cup
• Small kitchen scale
• maybe drinking glasses with oz/cup measurements on them?

• cajun tofu
• eggplant sandwich
• “healthiest pie crust”
• butternut squash

• My co-op had a work party today (a once-per-semester, 3-hour event where we clean the house extra good). It made me think about my own future house. Maybe I will…
• Have something of a work party with my kids every season or so.
• Then after, maybe have a professional come in finish what we missed?
• What material is best for the kitchen? What is the best material for the inside of drawers? There were a lot of sticky things in the kitchen today… it made me want to just use stainless steel drawers, but I don’t know how practical that’d be.
• My kids will participate in Habitat for Humanity. I want them to have construction skills.
• I wish I could participate in a Habitat for Humanity “Women Build” program. I’d love to learn construction skills in an environment that’s especially for women.